Facebook IPO Blows Up ... on Twitter

Facebook finally went public today, and the tech press was abuzz for hours before Mark Zuckerberg rang the NASDAQ's opening bell from the social network's California headquarters.

Over on Facebook  for myself, anyway  it was the usual posts about peoples' pets, check-ins at coffee shops, and photos from recent graduation ceremonies. The real IPO chatter was, ironically, happening on Twitter. Zuck is wearing a hoodie! Why isn't FB trading yet?! Is the NASDAQ down?!

The fact is, Facebook's IPO likely won't have much of an impact on the average consumer. Zuckerberg, a few Facebook execs, and those VCs smart enough to have gotten in at the early stages are now billionaires, but most of us won't see a huge difference at the world's largest social network. This new infusion of cash might let Facebook pursue some new projects or drop those that aren't working (check out PCMag's wishlist), but for the most part, it'll be status updates and baby pictures as usual.

The tech world, however, didn't exactly get the memo. It was wall-to-wall Facebook IPO tweets for several hours Friday morning, as people kept a close eye on Facebook's stock price and technical glitches at the NASDAQ while making jokes about Zuckerberg, the Winklevoss twins, Facebook's privacy policy, and more.